Lewis Hamilton takes victory in a chaotic Tuscan GP. The race saw 8 retirements, 2 red flag periods and stints behind both versions of the safety car. Alex Albon collected his first podium after a tense battle throughout the race.
Report:
Max Verstappen looked like he wouldn’t start the race, as his mechanics were working on his car right up to the formation lap. The car wasn’t properly fixed, but still took the race start.
As the lights went out, Bottas took the lead from a slow starting Hamilton. Verstappen was swamped, his issues clearly persisting into the race. However, as the pack came through turns 2 and 3 there were multiple incidents. The McLaren of Sainz was turned around while Verstappen was rear ended by Kimi Raikkonen. This was caused by Gasly being sandwiched into the side of his Alfa Romeo. Vettel lost his front wing with contact and a Haas was caught up as well. This immediately brought out the safety car and Verstappen and Gasly were unable to continue.
The safety car stayed out until lap 7, but then chaos reigned again. As Bottas pulled away, Sainz, Magnussen, Latifi and Giovinazzi had a huge pile up after Bottas severely backed up the pack. Latifi assumed the pack had gone and sped up. However, he had to stamp on the brake and was punted by Giovinazzi. Sainz was unable to predict the chaos and stormed into the back of the collision. Grosjean was tagged and spun across the track, slowing to a halt across the barriers. Only 3 corners had been raced overall and now the red flag was out.
During the red flag period, Esteban Ocon’s Renault was retired, promoting Russell to 10th. This was his best chance of points this season, as long as he could keep his nose clean. Many of the cars changed tyres, but only Mercedes changed to the medium compound tyre.
On the restart, Hamilton managed to get past Bottas through turn 1 while 4th placed Albon fell backwards as the Racing Points surged forwards. Stroll was now chasing Leclerc for the final podium position, using the tow over the 1km straight to keep in touching distance. However, Leclerc managed to break the DRS gap, hugely hindering the Canadian driver.
As the Mercedes pulled the gap, the battle for the last podium place started. Leclerc was maintaining the gap while Ricciardo managed to get himself into 5th, overtaking Perez on lap 15. Leclerc and Stroll started to battle, bringing all 4 cars to within 2 seconds of each other. On lap 18, Stroll managed to get himself into 3rd for the second week in a row. A lap later, Ricciardo pulled off the same move and was putting himself into contention.
Ricciardo slowly reeled the racing point in, taking tenths out of the gap per lap. However, the Australian pitted early in an attempt to undercut Stroll. This would end up being a successful strategy, putting Ricciardo in a net 3rd place. Meanwhile Norris was making progress, overtaking Perez for 5th. This started the wave of pit stops as Perez, Vettel and Magnussen pitted a lap later. Norris was also attempting to undercut Perez but had to wait to be released, throwing away the gap he had built.
Bottas had asked his team to completely change his strategy in comparison to Hamilton. He pitted on lap 32 and bolted on the hard compound tyres. However, Mercedes also put on the hards, negating any performance difference. As he left the pits, he now had an 8 second lead.
The had now race settled down after the chaotic start and Hamilton was maintaining a 6 second gap from Bottas. Both drivers were told to stay off the kerbs, the teams faced a repeat of the issues faced in the Austrian GP. Ricciardo was still 3rd, but Stroll was only 1.3 behind on lap 39 and Albon was catching the pair.
However, as the race was really calming down, Lance Stroll was seen cannoning off the track. His Racing Point lost the it’s back end and had a smash into the barriers. This immediately bought out the safety car and Bottas pitted straight away. He was not able to make the most of the advantage and remained 2nd. However, the red flag was bought out, changing the strategy for everyone.
Everyone changed on to the softs, providing the fans with a sprint race to the end.
Bottas slumped on the restart and was overtaken by Ricciardo. The Renault attempted a move on Hamilton, but wasn’t able to make it past. Bottas regained the position a lap later and Albon was now charging up the order to the battle for 3rd. Russell had fallen back in the restart and was out of the points. A lap later, Albon pulled off a supreme overtake against Ricciardo through turn 1 and manage to get 3rd.
The cars in front started to build decent gaps from each other, but the main source of tension came from Russell chasing down Vettel for 10th place. However, this wouldn’t come to fruition, and Russell will have to wait a bit longer for this first points finish.
Lewis Hamilton came across the line to take another victory ahead of Bottas, while Albon managed to collect his first ever podium. Ricciardo just missed out on a new tattoo with 4th ahead of Perez and Norris.
A very bizarre race, but one that will leave the sole visit to Mugello in many people’s memories. There is now a week gap before F1 returns at Sochi.
Full race results:
- Hamilton
- Bottas +4.880
- Albon +8.064
- Ricciardo +10.417
- Perez +15.650
- Norris +18.883
- Kvyat +21.756
- Leclerc +28.345
- Raikkonen +29.770
- Vettel +29.983
- Russell +32.404
- Grosjean +42.036
- Stroll RET
- Ocon RET
- Latifi RET
- Magnussen RET
- Giovinazzi RET
- Sainz RET
- Verstappen RET
- Gasly RET
Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official twitter
